For over ten years, I would send out a mix CD to friends and family of my favorite songs of the year. It was a labor of love – I would sit and sort through all my albums, finding my favorite songs and then put them all in order, trying to create a story or theme that tied it all together.

But it turns out that mailing CDs gets expensive and most people don’t have easy access to a CD player anymore anyway! So this year, I’m going high-tech and posting my playlist on Spotify. I still forced myself to stay within the 80-minute playtime of a CD-R and I did spend way too much time stressing over the order of the playlist.

As I always said with my mix CDs each year – for your first listen, please just listen straight through. Don’t hit shuffle, don’t skip to your favorite artist, listen to this like it was an album. Sometime in the new year I will write an annotated list of why I picked what I picked and the order etc. But for now, listen and enjoy while you prep those New Year’s Eve party snacks.